"The LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."
Genesis 3:13
The Serpent Beguiled Me
Dear Friends,
Greetings! Genesis 3:13, says "The LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." In second Corinthians, chapter eleven, Paul states "I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." The dictionary definition of "beguile" is deceive.
From the very beginning original sin entered into the world through Eve falling for a deceitful lie. Can this happen to people of God? Absolutely. As Paul warned the Christians in Corinth not to be deceived through subtilty. Subtilty being an old English word, today spelt subtly, meaning amongst other things slyness in design; cunning.
In Jesus' famous End Time discourse in Matthew 24, He warned four times in verses 4,5,11, and 24, not to be deceived. Who is He warning? At the very least it would be anyone who would have read Matthew 24, and most likely those readers who would have been believers in His words.
We live in an age of great deception. As 2Timothy 3:13 clearly states "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." Paul also states concerning the soon coming world dictator, the antichrist, "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders."(2 Thessalonians 2:9) Jesus shows John in Revelation it is through deceit, subtly, lies, etc. that the image of the beast, antichrist, is created, which leads ultimately to the infamous 666 mark of the beast.
"He, (the false prophet), doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast." (Revelation 13:13-14)
We know of course that we are in a great spiritual warfare between good and evil, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6:12) However, this spiritual warfare is definitely manifested in our physical world between God's representatives and Satan's representatives, with Satan's ultimate representative being the antichrist.
Jesus also warned us to "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.Ye shall know them by their fruits." (Matthew 7:15-16)
If what is happening in the world today does not make sense, or is confusing, or just plain lunacy, remember the times in which we are living.
Our first article may help to explain what and why things are as they are today. Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, one of the main founders of modern political science, was truly a man inspired--though it seems not by God.
A way of thinking of Machiavelli's ideas is in terms of Realpolitik. "Realpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than ideological notions or moralistic or ethical premises." Wikipedia
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Wikipedia
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
(3 May 1469 - 21 June 1527) was an Italian philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He is one of the main founders of modern political science.[Machiavellianism is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct", deriving from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe (The Prince) and other works.
- DEFINITION: Machiavellianism: "The theory and practice of power politics elaborated from Machiavelli's The Prince: envisaging (1) seizure, maintenance, and extension of absolute power by the nicely graduated use of guile, fraud, force, and terror; (2) control by the ruler of all avenues of communication, thus facilitating the deliberate molding of public opinion; (3) the employment for surveillance and terrorist activities of subordinates who can be disowned and liquidated by the ruler, who thus escapes the blame for their atrocities." --From the 1982 edition of Funk & Wagnall's Dictionary
Nicoli Machiavelli lived in Florence, Italy, during the Renaissance of the early 1500's. Living in a tumultuous time, he thought that if one person, namely Lorenzo de' Medici, could be the absolute ruler of all Italy, then order could be restored. In an effort to gain favor with the powerful Medici family, he wrote, "The Prince" as a blueprint justifying the use of any means, no matter how sinister, to gain and keep power.
"A wise prince will seek means by which his subjects will always and in every possible condition of things - have need of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him." - ~ Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Simply put, if a prince conquered a city, the people would hate him. But if the prince secretly hired terrorists to create an insurrection, then marched into the city to put down the insurrection, the people would praise him as a hero. Either way he increased his domain over the city, but it would be better for him if the citizens loved him rather than hated him for doing it. - -
It has been almost 500 years since Machiavelli argued that:
any action is permissible to gain and keep political power;
that the end-justifies-the-means;
that creating crisis is necessary to concentrate control.
In baseball there is a saying, "Keep your eye on the ball." But in global politics its - "Keep your eye on who's ending up with more money and power!"
The process of creating and managing crisis, terror, war and tyranny
Just remember this: The technique of "world conquest" is to first create a "problem", then, create "panic" in the minds of the people. And, then, offer the "solution" to the "problem" that created the "panic" among the people! - - This is also called the Hegelian Dialectic ... a man by the name of Hegel took the philosophies of Malthus and Machiavelli and developed a way of social engineering. - -
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, always." -- Mahatma Gandhi
RT News
NATO discusses ground operation, Libya promises hell
NATO discusses ground operation, Libya promises hell
Published: 4 May, 2011, 12:02 - Edited: 4 May, 2011, 18:50
The aerial bombardment of Libya has reached a dead end, which has intensified talk among NATO members about a possible land operation, a move that threatens to escalate massively the violence that already exists there.
The alliance's spokesman has admitted there is still little sign of progress for either side in the conflict, so there is a need for a new UN resolution to approve sending foreign troops in. In the meantime, civilian casualties from allied bombing continue to mount as fresh NATO air strikes have been heard in the Libyan capital overnight.
At a video conference with Russian students, a NATO spokesman revealed his organization's proposed solution: send in ground troops.
"The UN Security Council should adopt a new resolution on Libya. Resolution 1973 does not envisage land operations. We need a new resolution," professed James Appathurai.
Western forces planned that all along, says a leading US international law professor, Francis Boyle, of the University of Illinois.
"Clearly what we are seeing unfolding in Libya is a pre-existing war plan, by NATO, by the British, by the French, by the Americans to attack Libya," Boyle claimed.
"And now everything is going according to plan, which is why I believe that since they have failed to depose Gaddafi with their steps so far, the next stage will be moving into a ground invasion."
NATO powers have duped the international community into supporting war, notes author William Engdahl.
Protecting civilians was the claim, but grabbing the country's resources is their real goal.
"This is one of the most brazen transgressions of rights of nation national sovereignty in international law we have seen in the post-WWII period," he said.
"The West: the US, France and Britain have been covertly - according to the evidence that is leaking out - arming the opposition to Gaddafi in hopes of grabbing control of the oil and different parts of Libya," William Engdahl insists.
The Libyan government promises "hell" for NATO if it sends in ground troops. Some agree such a war may be tougher, than expected.
"We will see increased military activity not only in the air but also on the ground and maybe this will solve the problem from the perspective of the NATO countries, but mayby we will simply get into a deeper imbroglio," shared Professor Mark Almond of Bilkent University.
Bombing from 30,000 feet, coalition pilots feel fairly safe, but anti-war activists warn putting troops on the ground risks not just more civilian killing, but NATO deaths as well.
"The further they get from hi-tech, the nearer they get to low-tech - the greater the danger of casualties on both sides," warns Jim Brann from the Stop The War Coalition.
Turkey, China and Russia have all criticized the bombardment of Libya. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov thinks NATO's already gone far beyond the first UN resolution to maintain a no-fly zone. He hints a second resolution to move in ground troops may not come as easy, now several nations feel tricked.
"If anybody wants to ask for this mandate, welcome to the UN Security Council. We will discuss, try to understand what is planned, because the digressions from the mandate that we are seeing now are enough to learn lessons," Sergey Lavrov railed.
With international opposition on the rise, NATO states face an uphill task to make the case for more war.
While Britain's prime minister ruled out ground troops, now his Defense Secretary Dr Liam Fox tells Parliament they plan exactly that. But UN members are angered at the number of civilian deaths from NATO bombing, and are unlikely to welcome an escalation of the conflict.
© Autonomous Nonprofit Organization "TV-Novosti", 2005 - 2011. All rights reserved.
intifada-palestine.com
On May 13, of 2011, there will a gathering of Arabs in Tahrir square in Cairo, Egypt. Two days later there will a march into Israel by millions of demonstrators who want to free Jerusalem from the Jews. If this becomes a reality, and we only have to wait several weeks to see if it will, how will Israel react? We need to realize what is looming just around the corner, instead the morons in the media focus our attention on the royal wedding!
Gas prices are over $5 in Los Angeles and if there is an all out war in the Middle East it could easily climb into the double digits. Food prices are rising, fires are sweeping through Texas, tornado's through the Mid-west, nuclear meltdown in Japan Fukishima reactor has radiation levels spiking in US milk products. The dollar is about to collapse and what do we hear about.... The Royal Wedding... but I digress!
We may be looking at the most serious event in modern times, if this third Intifada becomes a reality, and millions of Arabs march to free Jerusalem, the world's eyes will be on Israel to see how she responds. This may be the tipping point. This might start an all out war against Israel, and Assad for one, would welcome the distraction.
What will we see on May 13 through the 15? Will the massing of millions of Arabs, result in the Third Intifada? Will this be the tipping point that results in a regional war that may, in fact go nuclear? We are admonished to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and so we should pray. However, we are also told that in the last days, Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling to the whole world. I believe we are in the last days and we may see events that will fulfill ancient prophecies that tell of the times in which we live.
haaretz.com
April 26, 2011
The question in the headline should ostensibly be directed to a Middle East expert, a political scientist, or even a foreign historian, not a writer whose expertise is his imagination. But because the question is a real one that is painful to everyone in the region regardless of his nationality, I will try to propose an answer.
This question is serious and disturbing for two reasons. First, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the longest-running conflicts in the modern era. If we mark its beginning at the start of Zionist settlement in Palestine in the 1880s, the conflict has been active, in blood and fire, for about 130 years.
Second, this is not a remote conflict in a godforsaken place, but one constantly at the center of international awareness. That means it is one of the most extensively dealt-with conflicts in the world. In the past 45 years alone, the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis has been the subject of serious attempts at mediation by many countries and respectable international organizations. Presidents of the United States have tried to mediate personally between the sides. Heads of government from all over the world devote their attention to it; high-level emissaries come to the region to try their hand at mediation and compromise. All this is on top of tireless initiatives by organizations and individuals on both sides in well-meaning symposia and meetings. Studies, books and innumerable position papers have been written and are being written all the time.
And although the sides have come to partial agreements in direct, secret and open talks, and although the formulas for a solution have seemed clear and acceptable, and even though these are two small nations that are ostensibly subject to international dictates, the conflict still contains an inner core that stubbornly refuses to surrender to peace.
It's true that there have been many mistakes and missed opportunities on both sides throughout the years. And because this conflict is cyclical rather than linear - in other words, time does not necessarily bring us closer to a solution, but peace approaches and recedes at historical junctions in the past and future - there is reason to wonder what makes this conflict unique compared to other conflicts, what causes it to persevere so zealously. I do not presume to intimate that my answer is the exclusive one, but I will try to put it to the test.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict refuses to be resolved because it is a conflict unprecedented in human history. There is no precedent for a nation that lost its sovereignty 2,000 years ago, was scattered among the nations, and later decided for internal and external reasons to return to its ancient homeland and re-establish sovereignty there. Therefore, if everyone considers the modern return to Zion a unique event in human history, that means the Palestinian people or the Israeli Arabs have also been forced to face a unique phenomenon that no other nation has confronted.
In the early 19th century there were only about 5,000 Jews in the Land of Israel, compared with the 250,000 to 300,000 Palestinian Arabs. At the time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 there were about 50,000 Jews compared with 550,000 Palestinians Arabs. (These numbers are from the Jewish Encyclopedia. ) And by 1948 there were about 600,000 Jews versus 1.3 million Palestinian Arabs.
The Jewish people thus quickly ingathered from all corners of the world. They did not want to expel the Palestinians, and certainly not to destroy them, but neither did they want to integrate them into Jewish society as other nations did with the local residents. Moreover, there was no attempt here to impose a colonial regime, since the Jews had no mother country that had sent them on colonial conquests, as in the case of Britain or France. Here something original and unique in human history took place: A nation arrived in the homeland of another nation to replace its identity with an ancient-new one.
That is why at its most profound level, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a question of territory, as in the case of many historical conflicts between nations, but a battle over the national identity of the entire homeland - every stone and every part of it. For both sides, and mainly for the Palestinians, the size of the nation confronting them is not clear - whether it consists only of Israeli Jews or the entire Jewish diaspora. And the Israelis don't know whether they are confronting only the Palestinian people or the entire Arab nation. In other words, the demographic boundaries of the two sides are not clear either. This is therefore a fundamental conflict that constantly creates primal and profound mistrust between the two peoples, preventing a possible solution.
Is it still possible to resolve the conflict without ending up in the trap of a binational state? I believe so, but because this is a question I haven't been asked, I won't answer it now.
guardian.co.uk
Ahmadinejad allies charged with sorcery
Iranian power struggle between president and supreme leader sees arrests and claims of undue influence of chief of staff
5 May 2011 19.23 BST
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is described as 'the actual president of Iran' by allies of the country's supreme leader.
Close allies of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being "magicians" and invoking djinns (spirits).
Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as "a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds".
The arrests come amid a growing rift between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei which has prompted several MPs to call for the president to be impeached.
On Sunday, Ahmadinejad returned to his office after an 11-day walkout in an apparent protest over Khamenei's reinstatement of the intelligence minister, who the president had initiallyasked to resign.
Ahmadinejad's unprecedented disobedience prompted harsh criticism from conservatives who warned that he might face the fate of Abdulhassan Banisadr, Iran's first post-revolution president who was impeached and exiled for allegedly attempting to undermine clerical power.
Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a hardline cleric close to Khamenei, warned that disobeying the supreme leader - who has the ultimate power in Iran - is equivalent to "apostasy from God".
Ahmadinejad has so far declined to officially back Khamenei's ruling over Heydar Moslehi, the minister at the centre of the row. In the first cabinet meeting since the president returned, Moslehi was absent.
Khamenei's supporters believe that the top-level confrontation stems from the increasing influence of Mashaei, an opponent of greater involvement of clerics in politics, who is being groomed by Ahmadinejad as a possible successor.
But the feud has taken a metaphysical turn following the release of an Iranian documentary alleging the imminent return of the Hidden Imam Mahdi - the revered saviour of Shia Islam, whose reappearance is anticipated by believers in a manner comparable to that with which Christian fundamentalists anticipate the second coming of Jesus.
Conservative clerics, who say that the Mahdi's return cannot be predicted, have accused a "deviant current" within the president's inner circle, including Mashaei, of being responsible for the film.
Ahmadinejad's obsession with the hidden imam is well known. He often refers to him in his speeches and in 2009 said that he had documentary evidence that the US was trying to prevent Mahdi's return.
Since Ahmadinejad's return this week, at least 25 people, who are believed to be close to Mashaei, have been arrested. Among them is Abbas Amirifar, head of the government's cultural committee and some journalists of Mashaei's recently launched newspaper, Haft-e-Sobh.
On Saturday, Mojtaba Zolnour, Khamenei's deputy representative in the powerful Revolutionary Guard, said: "Today Mashaei is the actual president. Mr Ahmadinejad has held on to a decaying rope by relying on Mashaei."
Reuters
BOJ Shirakawa warns Japan economic outlook "very severe"
By Leika Kihara
TOKYO | Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:45am BST
(Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Saturday that the country's economic outlook was very severe and that the central bank would take appropriate action to support the economy.
But he offered few clues on whether and when the BOJ would expand its asset-buying scheme, only saying that its next policy step would depend on economic conditions at the time.
"The BOJ sees the outlook for Japan's economy as very severe," Shirakawa told a financial committee meeting in the lower house of parliament.
"We'd like to take appropriate policy steps as needed while monitoring the economy and prices, taking into account that uncertainty over the outlook is high," he said.
The BOJ kept monetary policy unchanged on Thursday even as it lowered its growth forecast for the current fiscal year, which began in April, and warned of uncertainties over the extent of damage that last month's devastating earthquake would inflict on the economy.
Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated its northeast coast last month.
(Edited from longer article.)
The Epoch Times
Things just get worse and worse. We now are finding out about a new previously unknown disease appearing all over China according to a report in The Epoch Times.
People with this apparently very transmissible disease are having dramatic weight loss, night sweats, numb limbs, severe body aches, joint problems, severe vomiting and a large decrease in their white blood cell count and deterioration of their immune systems.
This seems to be much, much worse than the CRKP that is starting to spread around the world. Even though the CRKP has a high mortality rate, it is somewhat difficult to become infected.
- That is not the case with this new mysterious disease in China. According to reports this new AIDS-like virus (they think it may be one) spreads through ANY BODILY FLUID including saliva and sweat!
While the infected patients have the AIDS like symptoms, they test negative for AIDS. And currently, the experts are unable to authoritatively identify this new disease, or the source that it came from.
A reporter at the New Express Daily interviewed about 30 different patients with this new disease, most of them likely contracted it through some sort of sexual contact, but others were infected by a blood transfusion by a relative, another from a friend at a house gathering.
The fact that this can be so easily contracted in normal everyday settings and activities is CHILLING and very frightening.
Reports say that the Chinese Health Ministry has begun epidemiological studies in six provinces with the patients in an effort to determine the source of the disease.
While this is at the moment found just in China, as far as we know anyway, it very soon may begin showing up in other areas of the world. The way we have global transportation of both goods and people make this a forgone conclusion - it is only a question of WHEN not a question of IF.
We have yet to determine how effective any current treatment may be that are available. And we do not yet know what mortality rate there may be with this new germ.
All we can do is to protect ourselves as best as we can.
(Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Psalms 91:5-7)
My Fox Memphis
All Eyes on the Mississippi River
28 Apr 2011
Lauren - Lee
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Mississippi River continues to rise, so much so that its tributaries are starting to flow backwards. At Tom Lee Park, preps for Memphis in May continue knowing that the worst is still yet to come.
In Brief: - - - The Mississippi River is rising causing her tributaries to flow backwards. - - The river rose 2 feet after the recent batch of storms. - - It is expected to crest at 45 feet on May 10th, the same day BBQ fest contestants set up their tents.
It's a site not often seen; the Wolf River and Nonconnah Creek are flowing backwards. The swelling river cannot take on much more water.
Gene Rench with the National Weather Service said all eyes are on the Mississippi. The tributaries flowing backwards are a big problem for the adjacent communities.
"Right now the Mississippi river is in the process of going through what we call an epic flood, meaning it's more than historic, it's more than a 100 year flood, it's more like a 500 year flood," he said. "We could flood many homes, businesses, close down factories, people could drown."
The river is more than two feet past flood stage; it rose two feet in the 24 hours following the storms. It's expected to crest at 45 feet around May 10th, right when Barbecue Festival teams are setting up their tents.
Press TV
Six US states under flood threat
Fri May 6, 2011 1:31AM
Another section of the Mississippi River levee is to be breached for the third time to relieve a flood threat in six US states.
US engineers and officials are planning the blast on the Birds Point levee with the hope of diverting the flood waters for 35 miles (56 km) before they return to the Mississippi River in the town on New Madrid, as six US states are either bracing for or already reporting record flooding, dpa reports.
Evacuations have already begun in some states and heavy rains are predicted for the coming week.
The levee was first breached on Monday in order to save a town in Illinois, which also sacrificed 200 square miles of farmland in Missouri.
The third blast, which was scheduled for Wednesday, was delayed for some "logistical difficulties," as the Army Corp of Engineers say. The blast is due on Thursday 1800 GMT.
The Army Corp of Engineers is the body responsible for the system of locks and dams along the Mississippi River.
Flooding already spread earlier this week across bottomland farms in the river's upper valley in Illinois and Missouri.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said the flooding would be a "marathon" that would last for weeks. Mayor Paul Winfield of Vicksburg, Mississippi, said, "This flood will be historic."
This year, record rains and horrific storms across the Midwest and South have added to the flow, the meteorology service AccuWeather said. Projections indicate the Mississippi River could set new record stages over the coming weeks, as bad or worse than the historic 1937 floods.
The rains during April have already pushed the flood stage to nearly 20 meters in Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Destruction of a levee to protect a town resulted in the flooding of 56,000 hectares of farmland in Missouri.
Just last week, tornadoes of record size and numbers struck the US South, killing at least 350 people and cutting a swathe of destruction across five states, including worst-hit Alabama.
The worst tornado outbreak to hit the United States was in March 1925 when about 750 people died.
Following fatal tornadoes and flooding, US President Barack Obama has signed a disaster declaration for Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, making the three states eligible for federal help with relief efforts.
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Discovery News
Is the Sun Emitting a Mystery Particle?
Analysis by Ian O'Neill
Wed Aug 25, 2010
When probing the deepest reaches of the Cosmos or magnifying our understanding of the quantum world, a whole host of mysteries present themselves. This is to be expected when pushing our knowledge of the Universe to the limit.
But what if a well-known -- and apparently constant -- characteristic of matter starts behaving mysteriously?
This is exactly what has been noticed in recent years; the decay rates of radioactive elements are changing. This is especially mysterious as we are talking about elements with "constant" decay rates -- these values aren't supposed to change. School textbooks teach us this from an early age.
This is the conclusion that researchers from Stanford and Purdue University have arrived at, but the only explanation they have is even weirder than the phenomenon itself: The sun might be emitting a previously unknown particle that is meddling with the decay rates of matter. Or, at the very least, we are seeing some new physics.
Many fields of science depend on measuring constant decay rates. For example, to accurately date ancient artifacts, archaeologists measure the quantity of carbon-14 found inside organic samples at dig sites. This is a technique known as carbon dating.
Carbon-14 has a very defined half-life of 5730 years; i.e. it takes 5,730 years for half of a sample of carbon-14 to radioactively decay into stable nitrogen-14. Through spectroscopic analysis of the ancient organic sample, by finding out what proportion of carbon-14 remains, we can accurately calculate how old it is.
But as you can see, carbon dating makes one huge assumption: radioactive decay rates remain constant and always have been constant. If this new finding is proven to be correct, even if the impact is small, it will throw the science community into a spin.
Interestingly, researchers at Purdue first noticed something awry when they were using radioactive samples for random number generation. Each decay event occurs randomly (hence the white noise you'd hear from a Geiger counter), so radioactive samples provide a non-biased random number generator.
However, when they compared their measurements with other scientists' work, the values of the published decay rates were not the same. In fact, after further research they found that not only were they not constant, but they'd vary with the seasons. Decay rates would slightly decrease during the summer and increase during the winter.
Experimental error and environmental conditions have all been ruled out -- the decay rates are changing throughout the year in a predictable pattern. And there seems to be only one answer.
As the Earth is closer to the sun during the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere (our planet's orbit is slightly eccentric, or elongated), could the sun be influencing decay rates?
In another moment of weirdness, Purdue nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins noticed an inexplicable drop in the decay rate of manganese-54 when he was testing it one night in 2006. It so happened that this drop occurred just over a day before a large flare erupted on the sun.
Did the sun somehow communicate with the manganese-54 sample? If it did, something from the sun would have had to travel through the Earth (as the sample was on the far side of our planet from the sun at the time) unhindered.
The sun link was made even stronger when Peter Sturrock, Stanford professor emeritus of applied physics, suggested that the Purdue scientists look for other recurring patterns in decay rates. As an expert of the inner workings of the sun, Sturrock had a hunch that solar neutrinos might hold the key to this mystery.
Sure enough, the researchers noticed the decay rates vary repeatedly every 33 days -- a period of time that matches the rotational period of the core of the sun. The solar core is the source of solar neutrinos.
It may all sound rather circumstantial, but these threads of evidence appear to lead to a common source of the radioactive decay rate variation. But there's a huge problem with speculation that solar neutrinos could impact decay rates on Earth: neutrinos aren't supposed to work like that.
Neutrinos, born from the nuclear processes in the core of the sun, are ghostly particles. They can literally pass through the Earth unhindered as they so weakly interact. How could such a quantum welterweight have any measurable impact on radioactive samples in the lab?
In short, nobody knows.
If neutrinos are the culprits, it means we are falling terribly short of understanding the true nature of these subatomic particles. But if (and this is a big if) neutrinos aren't to blame, is the sun generating an as-yet-to-be- discovered particle?
If either case is true, we'll have to go back and re-write those textbooks.
Source: Stanford University
("There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars". Luke 21:25 "The sun shall not smite thee by day". Psalm 121:6)
Confirmed: iPhone and iPad secretly track and store your location
Apple's iPhone and iPad have been tracking the locations of users in a hidden file, according to The New York Times
Niamh Marnell - NaturalNews - May 1, 2011
Computer programmers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, presented their findings last week at the O'Reilly Where 2.0 technology conference in San Francisco. Their research showed the iPhone and 3G iPads have been logging the location data for the past year after a software update installed a new hidden file on the mobile devices.
The location and time, which are tracked through cell phone towers and Wi-Fi networks and stored on the devices, are copied over to users' hard drives when the devices are synced with a computer, the programmers said.
Apple stayed silent on the issue for a week until Google, which was also found to have a tracking program on phones that use its Android system, responded with a statement that the information collected was anonymous. Apple then followed in kind, mirroring Google's anonymity claims, according to a recent USA Today article (http://usat.ly/l7TNXu).
"It doesn't matter how Apple explains its way out of this," said Chenxi Wang, a vice president of Forrester Research who specializes in security and risk. "Just the fact that consumers know that their phone is being tracked is a very big deal."
Apple should allow customers to opt out of being tracked, said Ian Glazer, director of Gartner Research identity and privacy group.
"There is no way to really turn this tracking off," he said. "It needs to be visually obvious, or in the settings, to see that this is happening on your phone."
A blog post by Allan raised the issue of "how Apple intends to use [the information] -- or not." Is Apple gaining access to the information in any way? And why it is being stored at all?
Apple claims it is creating a database of cell towers and Wi-Fi hot spots that users have used, which can then help phones better orient to a signal when GPS signals are sketchy or unavailable.
Apple's purported purpose clearly did not require the data to be stored for long periods of time, and Apple has since reduced the storage time to seven days. Google always had a shorter time period for the data stored on its Android phones.
Google and Apple have agreed to testify before a Congressional committee May 10, according to the Hindustan Times about consumer privacy issues related to mobile technologies. Apple also faces possible action by data protection regulators in the European Union, according to Bloomberg.
MailOnline
Herbal medicines banned as EU directive comes into force
By Daily Mail Reporter - Last updated on 30th April 2011
Patients have lost access to hundreds of herbal medicines today, after European regulations came into force.
Sales of all herbal remedies, except for a small number of popular products for 'mild' illness such as echinacea for colds and St John's Wort for depression have been banned.
For the first time traditional products must be licensed or prescribed by a registered herbal practitioner.
The Government allowed access to some unlicensed manufactured herbal medicines via a statutory register
Both herbal remedy practitioners and manufacturers fear they could be forced out of business as a result.
Some of the most commonly used products were saved after the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley approved a plan for the Health Professions Council to establish a register of practitioners supplying unlicensed herbal medicines.
However, many remedies were lost as it was only open to those who could afford the licensing process which costs between £80,000 to £120,000.
At least 50 herbs, including horny goat weed (so-called natural Viagra), hawthorn berry, used for angina pain, and wild yam will no longer be stocked in health food shops, says the British Herbal Medicine Association.
The 2004 EU directive demands that a traditional herbal medicinal product must be shown to have been in use for 30 years in the EU - or at 15 years in the EU and 15 years elsewhere - for it to be licensed.
The UK drug safety watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Agency, has issued more than a dozen alerts in the past two years, including a warning last month over a contaminated weight loss pill called Herbal Flos Lonicerae (Herbal Xenicol) due to concerns over possible side-effects.
Mr Lansley, in a written statement, said the Government wanted to ensure continuing access to unlicensed herbal medicines via a statutory register for practitioners 'to meet individual patient needs'.
Acupuncture falls outside the EU directive and so remains unaffected.
Prince Charles, a long-standing supporter of complementary therapies, has voiced his support for formal regulation of herbal practitioners.
Up til now the industry has been covered by the 1968 Medicines Act. This was drawn up when only a small number of herbal remedies were available.
But recent studies show that at least six million Britons have used a herbal medicine in the past two years.
Professor George Lewith, professor of health research at Southampton University, said: 'Evidence for the efficacy of herbal medicines is growing; they may offer cheap, safe and effective approaches for many common complaints.'
("For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God".Hebrews 6:7)
Be an Optimist Without Being Foolish
By Heidi Grant Halvorson, HBR, May 2, 2011 - There are quite a number of motivational speakers and self-improvement books out there with a surprisingly simple message: believe that success will come easily to you, and it will. There is one small problem in this argument, however, which unfortunately doesn't seem to stop anyone from making it: it is false.
In fact, not only is visualizing "effortless success" unhelpful, it is a recipe for failure. And no, I'm not overstating it.
But how can this be? Isn't optimism a good thing? Yes it is. Optimism and the confidence it creates are essential for creating and sustaining the motivation you need to reach your goals. Albert Bandura, one of the founding fathers of scientific psychology, discovered decades ago that perhaps the best predictor of an individual's success is whether or not they believe they will succeed. Thousands and thousands of experiments later, he has yet to be proven wrong.
But there is an important caveat: to be successful, you need to understand the vital difference between believing you will succeed, and believing you will succeed easily. Put another way, it's the difference between being a realistic optimist and an unrealistic optimist.
Realistic optimists (the kind Bandura was talking about) believe they will succeed, but also believe they have to make success happen--through things like effort, careful planning, persistence, and choosing the right strategies. They recognize the need for giving serious thought to how they will deal with obstacles. This preparation only increases their confidence in their own ability to get things done.
Unrealistic optimists, on the other hand, believe that success will happen to them--that the universe will reward them for all their positive thinking, or that somehow they will be transformed overnight into the kind of person for whom obstacles cease to exist. (Forgetting that even Superman had Kryptonite. And a secret identity that took a lot of trouble to maintain. And also relationship issues.)
One of the clearest illustrations of the dangers of unrealistic optimism comes from a study of weight loss. Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen asked a group of obese women who had enrolled in a weight-loss program how likely they felt they were to reach their goals. She found that those women who were confident that they would succeed lost 26 pounds more than self-doubters, as expected.
But Oettingen also asked the women to tell her what they imagined their road to success would be like--if they thought they would have a hard time resisting temptation, or if they'd have no problem turning down free doughnuts in the conference room and a second trip to the all-you-can-eat buffet. The results were astounding: women who believed they would succeed easily lost 24 pounds less than those who thought their weight-loss journey would be no walk in the park.
She has found the same pattern of results in studies of students looking for high-paying jobs after college, singles looking to find lasting love, and seniors recovering from hip replacement surgery. Realistic optimists send out more job applications, find the courage to approach potential romantic partners, and work harder on their rehabilitation exercises--in each case, leading to much higher success rates.
Believing that the road to success will be rocky leads to greater success because it forces you to take action. People who are confident that they will succeed, and equally confident that success won't come easily, put in more effort, plan how they'll deal with problems before they arise, and persist longer in the face of difficulty.
Unrealistic optimists are only too happy to tell you that you are "being negative" when you dare to express concerns, harbor reservations, or dwell too long on obstacles that stand in the way of your goal. In truth, this kind of thinking is a necessary step in any successful endeavor, and it is not at all antithetical to confident optimism. Focusing only on what we want, to the exclusion of everything else, is just the kind of naïve and reckless thinking that has landed industry leaders (and at times entire industries) in hot water.
Cultivate your realistic optimism by combining a positive attitude with an honest assessment of the challenges that await you. Don't just visualize success--visualize the steps you will take in order to make success happen.
("Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Ecclesiastes 9:10)
God bless and keep you in the week ahead. We continue to invite you to contact us via the web site.
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